It’s not that brilliant, Colorado sunshine bouncing off of snow isn’t gorgeous, but if you’re like me, you’re ready to contemplate something different, and I don’t mean the snow mold that turf types are worried is burgeoning beneath those brilliant banks of white.

I mean something like this.

Rosa glauca. If you had this big, beautiful rose, right now its red branches and stunning rose hips would be showing up against those white snowbanks. You’d be looking forward to its pink and white blooms and deep-purple foliage.

Glauca is one of the seven plants that Plant Select, a collaboration between the Denver Botanic Gardens, Colorado State University and the green industry in Colorado, chose for its 2010 introductions. They do this every year, and every year I feel like Steven Martin in that old comedy sketch, yelling, “The new phone books are here! The new phone books are here!” I can’t wait in January to see just what they’ve picked. This year there are some old standbys, plants that people in Colorado know about and grow, but that were little known beyond the Front Range.

Becky Hensley is the co-founder of Share Denver - a community craft space in Park Hill. She's also the proud Ninja-in Chief of the Denver Craft Ninjas -- a women’s crafting collective dedicated to keeping the DIY spirit alive through laughter, shared skills, and cocktails.

Colorado native Mark Montano is an international designer, artist, author and television personality. He has appeared on TLC’s “While You Were Out” and “10 Years Younger,” as well as “My Celebrity Home” on the Style Network, “She’s Moving In” on We TV, “The Tony Danza Show” on ABC, and “My Home 2.0” on Fox.